think I have told you guys about velas and valorios and all that jazz, but just in case you don’t remember here is a recap. When someone dies (in the catholic community aka almost everyone here) they have a valorio. The body is laid out in a casket (the same day the person dies) and everyone in the community comes to visit the house. They spend the day singing and crying and then bring the body to the cemetery and burry it. They then continue to congregate at the house for 9 days after the person dies. After that they start having “velas” every month on the anniversary of the persons death for a year, and after the first year has passed they have a vela every year on the anniversary of the persons death for 7 years. Usually a vela consists of singing, a mini church service, and food and coffee or soda for all of the attendees. Now I live in pretty large campo so all the velas can be a little overwhelming…
Anyways, the other day my neighbor had a vela for her daughter who died of brain cancer. Since it was my neighbors vela, and she is very old, I went with all my other neighbors to help prepare the day before. We spent the entire day cleaning the house and preparing the food for the next day. We had to prepare food for at least 100 people so it was CRAZY. I swear I peeled at least 500 cloves of garlic. No joke. We also killed a cow, chopped it up, and cleaned all the meat. This got a little intense because they use EVERYTHING (heart, liver, intestines etc.) and ummm ewwww I did not like cleaning those parts. We also went out to the conuco and picked bean pods, took them out of their pods, and prepared them. The next day was the actual vela, and we started cooking the food early in the morning. We had 8 HUGE pots cooking in the backyard. Some had moro (rice and beans cooked together) and the others had the meat. Now my favorite part of all of this is that the men sit around and drink while the women do all the work haha. One of the men was giving instructions from his chair because he didn’t like the way we were making the salad so I jokingly told him if he didn’t like how we were doing it he could do it himself. He then held a spoon and pretended to stir so that I could take a picture of him “helping”. However, I do have the give the men credit because they do pass out all of the food after the women box it up in to-go boxes.
It was just one of those days that I kept thinking… wow this is my life now. Weird!
 |
| Stirring the moro with branches. |
 |
| salad! |
 |
| helping stir the dressing |
I
 |
| men watching the women work. |
 |
| washing the meat |
 |
| washing the meat |
 |
| lots of cow |
 |
| Four of the eight pots. |
 |
| This is how we cook rice. |
 |
| my kids. |
 |
| Me doing a condom demonstration with a platano. |
 |
| The kids explaining what they learned about STDs |
 |
| my neighbor teaching me how to open a coconut with a machete |
 |
| my neighbor teaching me how to open a coconut with a machete |
 |
Mango Season!!!
|
